Still a little fatigued after his 200-meter dash victory about an hour earlier, Houston sophomore Errol Nolan briefly considered not running a leg for the Cougars in the 1,600-meter relay to close out the Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Sunday night.

But in the spirit of friendly competition between teammates, Nolan quickly eliminated that possibility from his mind so that he could take bragging rights from teammate Chris Carter as the Cougars' top point-scorer.

It added a little bit of drama for the Cougars who had virtually none heading into the meet's final race, since they already had their third consecutive C-USA outdoor title well in hand.

The Cougars triumphed on the track once again, claiming the men's team championship on Sunday at Rice's Holloway Field and Ley Track with 175 points. UTEP came in second (139) while the Rice men came in a respectable fourth (104).

"We're all proud of this," said Nolan, took two individual gold medals in the 200 and 400-meter dashes on top of helping UH to a fourth-place finish in the 1,600 relay. "We came out and performed."

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The Cougars completed a sweep of the men's C-USA indoor and outdoor titles for the third straight year. It also marks the fourth conference title for UH athletics this season in addition to the men's indoor track, women's basketball and softball titles, the most conference titles for the program since 2005 when the Cougars also won four.

Nolan started his day with a victory in the 400-meter dash, where the Lamar Consolidated product ran a personal-best 45.54 second, then posted a time of 20.83 seconds in the 200.

Carter continued his dominance in the jumping events, adding a triple jump championship on Sunday to the long jump title he took on Saturday. Carter jumped 52 feet for his fourth C-USA jumping title of the season, as he won both the long and triple during the indoor championships.

Carter wasn't the only one to place in the triple as the Cougars took three of the top four spots in the event. Junior Thomas Lang (51 feet, 1/4 inch) finished third and senior Lamar Delaney (50 feet, 11 inches) took fourth.

Rice brought home a couple of individual titles of its own. Sophomore Alex Zinchenko took the men's shot put title with a toss of 58 feet, 3 3/4 inches. The win came over defending C-USA outdoor champion and reigning indoor champ Dennis Aliotta of East Carolina, who finished third.

"It was a great pleasure to finally succeed," Zinchenko said. "But Dennis is a great rival and we're still going to compete at regionals so this is the first of many battles."

Owls senior Ariana Ince claimed her third consecutive C-USA outdoor pole vault title (13 feet, 1 1/2 inch), completing a sweep of the conference indoor and outdoor pole vault titles for the third consecutive year. Rice and UH swept the medals in the event, as UH sophomore Karley King (12-9 1/2) took second and Rice senior Cleona Oliver (12-9 1/2) took third. Ince's feat duplicates that of her predecessor, former Owls vaulter Rachel Greff, who also swept the indoor and outdoor conference pole vault title for three straight years.

"I had a really good teammate in Rachel Greff to work with when I came in as a freshman," Ince said. "It seemed like that's what you were supposed to do. It just flowed naturally."

The UH women produced a solid showing, finishing third in the team standings with 87 points. It was a significant improvement over their C-USA indoor showing, where the Cougars finished seventh. Rice took seventh in the women's standings with 64.5 points while nationally-ranked Central Florida (157 poitns) and SMU (119) took the top two spots.

"I'm ecstatic about the women," said Burrell who earned C-USA Men's Outdoor Coach of the Year honors. "We've had some struggles. What I asked them to do today was to fight for every point. From the first race to the last, they did that."